Valdosta State's Josh Sparks (11) takes a shot over Albany State's Demarcus Blunt (23) Tuesday night.

Valdosta State’s men’s basketball team rebounded from an ugly 20-point home loss to Armstrong Atlantic State on Sunday by downing the Albany State Golden Rams 79-69 on Tuesday at the P.E. Complex.

Four Blazers scored in double figures. Billy McShepard registered another double-double, with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Josh Sparks led the Blazers with 16 points, Kevin Harris scored 14 points and Tristan Steele added 13.

The Blazers trailed midway through the first half, led by 18 five minutes into the second half and avoided a late game comeback by the Golden Rams, who got within eight points with two minutes to go.

“We played OK,” Blazers head coach Mike Helfer said. “I thought we played really well in stretches and really bad in stretches. There was very little in between.”

It was a back-and-forth contest early, as the Blazers trailed 21-17 midway through the first half. But a 3-pointer by Steele and a 3-point play by McShepard gave the Blazers a 27-22 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The Blazers built on their lead, and finished the half with a 42-32 lead.

Harris made two quick layups to start the second half. Later in the half, Christian Hunter hit a pair of free throws, McShepard made a tip-in and Hunter drained a 3-pointer to put VSU up by 18.

Albany State closed to within 71-63 with two minutes to go, but Sidney Harris and Kevin Harris hit four consecutive free throws to ice the game. VSU made 20-of-25 free throws on the night.

“I thought we played with great confidence for a while, but then when the lead started to shrink, it seemed like we tightened up a bit, and made some uncharacteristic mistakes,” Helfer said. “We have to make sure we come in and look at some video and fix that.”

The Blazers improved to 4-2 on the young season.

“I think we can play a lot better,” Helfer said. “I think our talent level is very high, but we’re not playing up to that level yet. That will come. I don’t want to be playing our best basketball in November. Hopefully we can continue to get better as the season goes on, and play our best in February.”

VSU shot 46.3 percent from the field, while Albany State shot 42.6 percent.

Marcus Benitez led Albany State with 20 points. He was the only Golden Ram to reach double figures.

Albany State fell to 0-3 on the season.

The Blazers return to the P.E. Complex on Saturday to face Clayton State at 4 p.m. It will be a rematch of a Thanksgiving weekend game the Blazers won in Morrow last season. VSU won that game 88-87, and it set the tone for a fantastic season.

“They have three starters back, seven letterwinners back,” Helfer said. “They will be ready. They’ll come in here with a vengeance, I think, to kind of make up for last year. I would expect us to come out and play well and accept the fact that we’re going to be in a lot of big games this year because of the program. We have to make sure that we rise up to each challenge, night in and night out.”